The local administration in Bardiya has stipulated a few hours in the day for shops to open for business. Shops selling daily essentials remain open for a couple of hours and locals are seen in long queues to buy food grains, cooking oil and salt, among other goods.

At Radhakrishna Tharu Chowk in Gulariya Municipality, shops open between 10am and 2pm every day under a strict supervision of security personnel. For the locals, there is no other option but to stand outside the shops to get a chance to buy essentials.

Santosh Chaudhary, who was waiting in a queue outside a shop in Radhakrishna Chowk on Tuesday, said, “I have been standing here since 11am to purchase flour, salt and other food items. It’s almost 1pm now but I’ll have to wait another hour for my turn.”

Locals of Gulariya have started to rush to the market fearing a shortage of daily essentials, adding to the long queues outside shops every day. According to local businessmen, daily imports have fallen due to the lockdown which has affected the supply chain.

“If more shops were open, the crowd outside shops would be thin,” said Suresh Yadav, another consumer in Radhakrishna Chowk. But given the limited supply, only a few shops remain open in the bazaar area.

The Bardiya administration said they have allowed shops to open during the stipulated hours but most shops have chosen to stay closed. Ganesh Bikram Shah, the administrative officer at the District Administration Office in Bardiya, said the administration has requested businessmen to open shops to sell daily essentials including food grains, cooking gas and vegetable oil. “But many shops have not opened. We don’t know why.”

The District Administration Office said most retail shops are closed due to the lack of food grains and other daily essentials at the wholesalers’. Shah said, “We don’t want a shortage of daily essentials in the district. So we have allowed imports of food grains and other essentials from other districts. We have also encouraged businessmen to import more foodstuffs and other daily essentials for the benefit of the locals.”

Bir Bahadur Chaudhary, chairman of the Bardiya Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said more than a half dozen shops selling food grains and other daily essentials open every day.